Regal Petroleum reports oil find in Greece

Sep 30, 2004 02:00 AM

Regal Petroleum has laid claim to becoming the next Cairn Energy after revealing that it has made one of the biggest
oil finds of the year, in Greece.
The oil minnow said independent checks by third-party reserves auditors show its Greater Kallirachi field in the
North Aegean sea holds 1 bn barrels of light crude.

The group struck oil at Kallirachi in January and had previously banked on having only 650 mm barrels of oil in
place. The total amount of recoverable oil will not be known until next year at the earliest.
Shares in the group, one of the best performing stocks this year, rose 13 pence to 337 pence and offset a dismal set
of half-year figures.
One analyst said: "This is comparable to what Cairn has discovered at Mangala. It's going to give Regal a load more
credibility."

Despite its strong share performance, Regal has rocketed from 74 1/2 pence a year ago, the group has suffered from
growing scepticism in the City. It has missed production targets and been forced to bolster a sparse technical team.
The half-year results showed pre-tax losses grew from $ 1.4 mm to $ 2.5 mm in the six months to 30 June.
Output was just 4800 bpd across its existing interests in Greece and Ukraine.